CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility
Since 2011 Natuaventura has organised, together with the Khanimambo Foundation, a summer camp in Mozambique for the children of the foundation. Thanks to your support and the effort of the monitors who volunteer, every year 300 children experience a genuine summer camp.
Not all heroines wear a cape. This one wears a smile.
Summer camp in Mozambique
A letter received from Jorge Duce Marín (Tío Duce). Monitor at Natuaventura and Coordinator of the Khanimambo Summer Programme on two occasions.
Much like what we might call a “modern-day proverb”, the phrase “not all heroes wear a cape” has become a universally understood expression for referring to all those people who, through their everyday work or a specific action, deserve to be called “heroes”. I myself have always seen my own mother as a heroine without a cape, for the way she carries out her demanding work at a care centre for people with disabilities, and for finding the energy — even as it grows harder — for so much more besides.
Celebrating Khanimambo’s tenth anniversary
When thinking about the celebration of Khanimambo’s tenth anniversary, I have mentally revisited some of my memories in Praia de Xai-Xai with the children and colleagues of the Foundation, as well as with the families and all those who are part of both that wonderful community and Khanimambo. And with all of that swirling around in my head, I decided to write a few words explaining why Alexia is, without doubt, one of those heroines who needs no cape; she simply does not need one. Alexia possesses all the powers that any great superhero requires, and something that sets her apart from the gloomy, tortured characters who typically embody them: a smile that is always with her and that conveys far more than she herself realises.
Alexia does not fly; but she has made many young people — young now, children back then — from Mozambique fly higher than they could ever have imagined, and, hard as it may sound, achieve goals they would never have reached without the help of Khanimambo. Their dreams take flight because they now know they can accomplish whatever they set their minds to. And why not literally fly, on a plane, on the way to fulfilling the dream of studying in Spain, as Ernesto did a few months ago.
Alexia does not have the superhuman strength that some comic-book heroes boast; but she has more inner strength than any of them. A strength that has carried her through ten years of bumps, problems, obstacles and hardships that have come her way — and there have been no shortage of them. And she has faced all of it with the smile and composure she always shows. Or the strength — some might call it love — to fight to the very end for Rael, “the apple of her eye”.
Alexia has no supervision of any kind; but her sharp instinct and knowledge of Xai-Xai allow her to detect the problems of many of Khanimambo’s godchildren without anyone having to tell her. And problems in Mozambique tend to be real problems, not like the ones we face here in Spain, so discovering them and anticipating them is, without doubt, another of her powers.
The true driving force behind everything Khanimambo achieves
Alexia does possess one of the qualities these characters sometimes embody: humility as her banner. Even now, at the Foundation’s tenth anniversary, she has not had a single moment or word of self-congratulation. She has not presented herself as the true driving force behind everything Khanimambo achieves, nor has she thought — nothing could be further from the truth — that she has already covered most of the journey. On the contrary, she only thinks about how to help more people and more widely. And all of this with that humility that makes her want to stay close to everyone who forms part of Khanimambo in one way or another: from the volunteers to the sponsors, from the families to each individual child. A humility that is also shared and passed on to all the children of the Foundation, so that they understand that without it, they will not go as far as they think.
Alexia has no cape, no, but she does not need one. Nobody in Praia de Xai-Xai doubts that she is a heroine — someone who, ten years ago, left everything behind to go to Mozambique and has changed the lives of hundreds of people there. Nobody who has been to the Khanimambo Foundation and has seen first-hand the work this NGO does will doubt it either, just as those who have witnessed the energy and passion Alexia radiates when she talks about the children of Khanimambo. Alexia has no cape, but she is a heroine from head to toe. I have never met another like her. And since we are talking about children, as they themselves would say… “On behalf of myself and all my fellow campers, THANK YOU, HEROINE”.
